Proper 28(33) B, Sunday November 15 — Twenty-Fifth Sunday after Pentecost
Daniel 12:1-3
Psalm 16 (9)
Hebrews 10:11-14 [15-18] 19-25
Mark 13:1-8
On Friday I began to wonder whether today’s readings were a good choice or not. After the Paris attacks, do we really want to hear Jesus speak of wars and of nation rising against nation? Wouldn’t...

October 18
Isaiah 53:4-12
Psalm 91:9-16 (9)
Hebrews 5:1-10
Mark 10:35-45
On Friday and Saturday I attended a wonderful workshop about the Adult Catechumenate, about receiving and integrating new members into the congregation, or simply 'The Way' which they call it at Phinney Ridge Lutheran in Seattle where the presenters are from. The workshop will finish today at 2...

Thanksgiving Sunday – 11 October 2015
Joel 2:21-27
Psalm 126 (3)
1 Timothy 2:1-7
Matthew 6:25-33
One should not speak about others but with others, and not about others without their presence or knowledge, and so what I am about to say I qualify as anecdotal, not as factual, for I am about to speak about someone else' tradition.
But...

27 September 2015
Numbers 11:4-6, 10-16, 24-29
Psalm 19:7-14
James 5:13-20
Mark 9:38-50
Go-To People (preacher: Ron Vonk)
There are a lot of things that I am not very good at. I am not mechanically inclined. So I cannot repair refrigerators, stoves, cars, or anything that has more than one part. I also do not know a lot about computers....

Isaiah 35:4-7a
Psalm 146
James 2:1-10 [11-13] 14-17
Mark 7:24-37
I told you I was loitering at the mall last week. It was during the power outage. We had no power at home, there was no power at the church, and little point to go home, for what I was doing I could do in the car (and...

Joshua 24:1-2a, 14-18
Psalm 34:15-22 (15)
Ephesians 6:10-20
John 6:56-69
It was in 1991 that the National Convention of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada accepted a new statement on sacramental practices. This included the understanding that Holy Communion, like Holy Baptism, was a sacrament of grace, it was not earned by us but gifted to us by...

25 January 2015
Jonah 3:1-5, 10
Psalm 62:5-12 (6)
1 Corinthians 7:29-31
Mark 1:14-20
I have told you the story before. But it is so good that I will tell it again.
In 1949 Fred Craddock was in college. He had read Albert Schweitzer’s book “the Quest for the Historical Jesus” (Geschichte der Leben Jesu Forschung). He heard that...

18 January 2015
1 Samuel 3:1-10 [11-20]
Psalm 139:1-6, 13-18 (1)
1 Corinthians 6:12-20
John 1:(35-42)43-51
In a way, I have been lucky. I cannot remember ever having tried to convince someone of the reality of God, as if God could be proved or disproved by rational argument. I think it was Dietrich Bonhoeffer who said that a...